Verticillium...musings!

[beeman]

I have posted numerous times in the past regarding Verticillum Wilt and now want to share my latest findings on this God awful problem.
First here is a link to a most valuable article http://www.globalsciencebooks.info/J...SI1)26-36o.pdf regarding Trichoderma as a preventative/cure.
I found BioVam to contain Trichoderma so used it on my potatoes and for the first time ever have not lost a one to wilts this year.
I also used it on my Toms, but ran into a problem. We always plant up to first leaf, so we treated the root ball, but forgot the stem! This area of course makes new roots which would be unprotected by the BioVam used on the root ball. Sure enough, I am losing plants to the wilts, so far about 25% gone.
Adding to all this, I use AACT, and the suggestion to propagate Thrichoderma is to add it to the final brew and use as a soil drench.
If anyone would care to join me in this latest addition, even your own preferred brew of Trichoderma, then report the results next year, then I would be prepared to provide more information.
Comments gratefully received.

[fortyonenorth]

Thanks Beeman. Good reading in preparation for next year. Never had a problem before, but I'm getting hit this year - not sure if it's Verticillium, Fusarium, Nematodes or ??, but I've lost about 10% to wilt in the last two weeks.

[fortyonenorth]

I found this article which suggests that amending the soil with Ammonium lignosulfonate - a completely natural byproduct of pulp and paper manufacturing - may significantly reduce VW and nematodes and at the same time dramatically increase populations of beneficial soil bacteria and fungi. You can read it here: http://mbao.org/1998airc/020soltani.pdf

[beeman]

Originally Posted by fortyonenorth

a completely natural byproduct of pulp and paper manufacturing - may significantly reduce VW and nematodes and at the same time dramatically increase populations of beneficial soil bacteria and fungi. You can read it here: http://mbao.org/1998airc/020soltani.pdf

Interesting reading. My first reaction would be "Where is this stuff available?" Difficulty accessing the byproduct of any process can be a problem unless someone wants to market it.
Trichoderma is readily available.

[fortyonenorth]

I think you're right - accessing the byproduct has limited it's commercial exploitation.

With a little research I found that the patent for this use of the product was assigned to a company in Montreal. They are marketing a product called Earth Alive Soil Activator. http://www.earthalivect.com/document...0Activator.pdf

Which Trichoderma product are you using?

[dice]

Grow-More markets a number of lignosulfonic acid chelated
micronutrients under the FERT-ALL label. I do not see ammonium
lignosulfonate, though. All of their nitrogen-containing products
listed under the FERT-ALL brand appear to use nitrates or urea:
http://www.growmore.com/industry/ag_organic.html

I suppose one could ask (email). Maybe they simply have not considered
it as a retail product.

Working with some plant extracts could help:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16964957

(One wonders if native North American magnolias would work
as well as the Magnolia officinalis studied by the Chinese
researchers. One could try simply amending beds with the fall
leaves of magnolias as an alternative to making an alcohol extract
and soil drenching with it to inhibit verticillium spore germination.)

Some heavy reading, but this does reflect in-depth knowledge of
the problem:
http://books.google.com/books?id=Ks4...page&q&f=false

(Intercrop with a mustard? It can be inconvenient to use disease-inhibiting
cover crops that grow during the same season as the crop that you are
trying to protect. A verticillium inhibiting winter cover crop would be cool.)

[fortyonenorth]

Thanks Dice. You always find the most interesting articles! The Chinese study also suggests Allium cepa extract as very effective. So, how would one go about making onion extract?

Originally Posted by dice

Grow-More markets a number of lignosulfonic acid chelated
micronutrients under the FERT-ALL label. I do not see ammonium
lignosulfonate, though. All of their nitrogen-containing products
listed under the FERT-ALL brand appear to use nitrates or urea:
http://www.growmore.com/industry/ag_organic.html

I suppose one could ask (email). Maybe they simply have not considered
it as a retail product.

Working with some plant extracts could help:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16964957

(One wonders if native North American magnolias would work
as well as the Magnolia officinalis studied by the Chinese
researchers. One could try simply amending beds with the fall
leaves of magnolias as an alternative to making an alcohol extract
and soil drenching with it to inhibit verticillium spore germination.)

Some heavy reading, but this does reflect in-depth knowledge of
the problem:
http://books.google.com/books?id=Ks4...page&q&f=false

(Intercrop with a mustard? It can be inconvenient to use disease-inhibiting
cover crops that grow during the same season as the crop that you are
trying to protect. A verticillium inhibiting winter cover crop would be cool.)

[dice]

Thanks Dice. You always find the most interesting articles! The Chinese study also suggests Allium cepa extract as very effective. So, how would one go about making onion extract?

Dice onions and soak them in vodka for a couple of weeks.

The only place I ever found high concentration ethyl alcohol (industrial
Everclear, more or less) was a fuels company that would sell 5 gallon
buckets (now closed, alas; I used to add it to gasoline for old
high-compression V-8s, etc).

80 proof Vodka works pretty well for making extracts. Because it is half
water, it absorbs both water-soluble and alcohol-soluble compounds
from whatever you are soaking in it. How much concentrated extract
to use per gallon of water for a soil drench would only be a guess at this
point.

Whenever I get fresh onlons that have sprouted top-growth in the bag,
I take them out and plant them in the garden where a tomato plant has
been afflicted with verticillium. I let them grow, flower, and die there.
I also sprinkle garlic chives seeds around with the cover crop seeds. If
they eventually sprout, great, they can co-habit with the tomatoes.

(Honeybees have been all over the flowering tops of some alliums
growing among the tomatoes this year, too. Onions, elephant garlic,
garlic chives, etc.)

Alcohol extracts are not hard to make, but the research is kind of sketchy
on how much to use per square foot of garden space. I would rather just
amend soils with plant material that the extracts are made from and see
if that works.

[beeman]

Originally Posted by fortyonenorth

Which Trichoderma product are you using?

I have been using BioVam plus on occasion their Microbe Tea kit in my own brewer, adding it to my Tea and using as Foliar spray. Another forum pointed out that a soil drench might be more efficient. So I am trying to add a few soil drenches before the fall closes it down.
Won't know till next year how successful it will prove.

[dice]

PS: While I would only use ethyl alcohol for a normal herbal extract
(something that you put a teaspoon or a few drops of in tea, for
example, or put in shampoo, rub on a poison ivy rash, etc), for garden
use an isopropyl alcohol extract might work just as well. One can usually
get isopropyl alcohol a lot cheaper than ethyl alcohol for the same
quantity at the same concentration.

[dice]

I did have the abstract of a California study bookmarked that tested
a mustard cover crop for suppressing verticillium and fusarium, as
it turns out:
http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=17299731

(No effect. It may well add organic matter, recycle excess nitrogen,
reduce erosion, annoy some kinds of destructive nematodes, and
improve the soil tilth, but no evidence of any effect on verticillium
or fusarium in the soil was found.)